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How Social Media Can Boost Your Business

Geoff Roy - Saturday, November 29, 2014

Social media is all around us these days isn’t it? Everywhere we turn there’s someone updating their Facebook status, re-tweeting a celebrity or endorsing a colleague’s skills on LinkedIn.

Social Media is where it’s at, where we need to be; a place in which our businesses need a presence and huge following. You just know, because you’ve probably been told loads of times, that having a prolific social media profile will boost your business and aid your long term growth opportunities.

But have you actually stopped to ask yourself why this is so? Or indeed, how this would be the case?

You see, social media CAN certainly be of huge importance to your business and it’s something which you really can’t ignore if you want to keep pace with (or better still, stay ahead of) the competition.

But to get the best out of your social accounts you need to understand just why they are so important, so that you can best tailor your strategy to ensure you get the maximum gain.

New followers provides you with a bigger pool of potential clients

Having a huge number of followers on Facebook or Twitter or other platforms can be a great boost to the ego. Watching the numbers go up can certainly make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside but that’s not the REAL reason we try to get new followers to our business’ social accounts.

New followers means an increased number of potential clients with whom you can engage and hopefully convert into new sales. Whilst this won’t apply to every single follower, there’s a good chance that a significant number of your followers are doing so because they have an interest in what you have to say and, hopefully sell.

Social Media can act as the modern day ‘word-of-mouth’

The fact is that social networks are used by a significant majority of the population. It’s where people talk, interact and share thoughts, ideas and importantly, recommendations and reviews.

If you have a presence on social channels you can use it to showcase your knowledge and expertise, engage in helpful advice and impart your wisdom on subjects relevant to your business. It helps people recognise your business and brand and can establish you as an authority figure.

Of course, for many there is a reluctance to step fully into this realm for fear of ‘negative reviews’ or even ‘trolling’.

Now, while you can’t control everyone’s views, opinion or behaviour, savvy users of social media can turn negatives into positives. If someone has a genuine grievance shared online, you are provided with a forum in which to engage, resolve an issue and display your good customer service – learning from your customers as you go.

It’s a powerful way to engage with your clients and increase your local identity

People often don’t equate social media or use of the internet as a tool to boost a business’ local identity. However these platforms are ‘exactly’ the forum to enhance this profile and attract custom from your locality.

As we’ve said, pretty much everyone uses both the internet and social media including all those clients who live on your doorstep. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ can have enormous impact if you use them to engage with these folk. It’s a way to keep your brand in their mind’s eye even when online, a way to share offers or maybe reward schemes that can draw these clients across your threshold. Additionally, by optimising your pages on platforms such as Google+, linking your page to Google Places and Maps is akin to advertising on one of the most powerful local directories in the world.

Social media really is something that can’t be ignored by those seriously marketing their businesses in both an online and offline capacity. Whether selling across the internet, globally or to those who live within a stone’s throw from your premises regular engagement on the social platforms can have a big impact on the success of your business.